One of the world’s biggest streaming holdouts has finally embraced the format’s takeover of the music business.

Taylor Swift, who has held back previous albums from music-streaming services during their initial release—offering them only for physical and digital sale for at least their first few weeks—began offering her seventh studio album, “Lover,” directly on Spotify and other streaming services Friday.

Ms. Swift was one of the last major artists to endorse the format, which has upended the way people consume music and how artists and labels make money.

At that time, streaming made up about 60% of total music consumption in the U.S., according to Nielsen Music. It is now 80%. Accordingly, Ms. Swift has cozied up to the world’s biggest streaming service, and
Spotify Technology SA
SPOT 1.62%
is returning the favor. Lyrics from her songs adorn Spotify billboards in cities across the world, and the service is carrying an enhanced version of “Lover” featuring a video message and handwritten notes from the pop star.

From the invention of the phonograph in 1877 to the boom in streaming services today, the music industry has had to constantly adapt to emerging technology. In this video, we explore whether music can continue to reinvent itself to survive. Photo: Liliana Llamas/WSJ

“The reality is all of her fans are on our platform,” says Marian Dicus, Spotify’s head of artist and label services.

In announcing the album in June, she used her social-media accounts to encourage fans to “pre-add, pre-save, pre-order (all the pre stuff you feel like doing),” referring to ways streaming users can flag albums they want in their libraries before they are released.

“Holding out from streaming now is really like cutting off 80% of your face,” says Nielsen Music analyst David Bakula. “The business has gotten to that level where it’s not just important to be there, it’s important to be very prominent there.”

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On a weekly basis, album sales in the U.S. are less than half of what they were when Ms. Swift released her last album. Meanwhile, weekly streams have risen by two-thirds.

“You have this continuing growing segment of the music-consuming public who is just going to stream, they’re not going to buy,” says Mr. Bakula. “Instead of preordering they’re pre-adding to their library.”

That’s not to say Ms. Swift is backing down on sales altogether. Available at
Target Corp.
are four deluxe album sets with a CD, lyric book, audio memos from songwriting sessions, each offering a different selection of pages from her journals, handwritten lyrics and photos. That is in addition to themed merchandise from clothing, jewelry and fanny packs to key chains, mugs and phone cases that all come bundled with a digital album.

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Still, while a few artists like Ms. Swift maintain an album-purchasing fan base, it is no longer enough to make for a blockbuster.

“Really nobody can have the same type of success from an overall sales perspective we saw five or 10 years ago without a streaming presence now,” says Mr. Bakula.

In 2014, Ms. Swift pulled her music from Spotify. She said she wanted it to be available only to paying subscribers, but Spotify insisted that all its users—including those who use its free, ad-supported option—be able to listen to it. In June 2017, ahead of the “Reputation” release, Ms. Swift returned her catalog to the service, including to its free tier. By then, her latest album at the time, “1989,” had sold 10 million copies world-wide.

With digital sales, a fan pays to download a permanent copy of a piece of music—usually 99 cents to $1.29 for a song and $10 to $15 for an album. A superstar like Ms. Swift would typically be entitled to a royalty of around 20% of the sale price. Users of streaming services pay around $10 a month to rent access to an unlimited catalog of music, with artists paid a fraction of a penny each time someone listens to one of their songs.

Spotify isn’t the only service showing love for “Lover.” Since Ms. Swift performed for
Amazon.com Inc.
’s Prime Day promotion in July, the company has been promoting her new music in advertisements and some of its Prime shipping boxes feature the album’s artwork.
Apple Inc.
said “Lover” is the most pre-added pop album of all time on its music service and has invited fans to its stores to learn how to create remixes of the second single from the album, “You Need To Calm Down.” Meanwhile, Ms. Swift has tapped
Alphabet Inc.
’s YouTube to live stream events and debut music videos.